Where is Your Focus Today?

I Corinthians 4:5 
 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.  (NASB)

Today, I find myself sitting in my hometown Panera Bread.  It's a place my parents find themselves every morning when they aren't snowbirding in Arizona.  I came to get some things done but find myself looking into faces that I knew long ago.  I see how they have aged, the gray hairs, the wrinkles but they are still recognizable.  It makes me wonder if their life is all they wanted it to be.  It makes me wonder if they are still living out their dream, their call, their purpose even though they have retired from their vocation?  Are they still dreaming how to change the world? What do their conversations sound like?

It is such a stark contrast against the younger people that are meeting with purpose and trying to make their mark on the world or make a living for their family.  Not even paying attention to anything in their surroundings.  I'm wondering if the questions the young people have could be answered by the older ones. 

Where do I fall?  In the middle.  My mid-forties have set in with needing reading glasses.  Why do I bring that up?  Because if I put my reading glasses on, I have to focus on my work, if I take them off I can take in what is going on all around me otherwise I can't see it...it's blurred.  It seems to be such a bother someone of my age that has never worn glasses to now need them to see things up close.  But maybe it's a blessing.  My best sight is distance, is further out.  I can't see up close anymore, so I can't really focus on what's happening up close without help of magnified glass.  I'm in this sweet spot or curious spot of seeing the future more clearly than what is directly in front of me.  I see the urgency of how close I am to needing help with all my sight.  With not being able to do what I've been called to do (not tomorrow but I am half way through life) at least in the way I imagine it.

I also find that it's funny that the glasses or lens that helps me see up close distorts the distance.  I'm sure there is something terribly profound in that.  Like what I see up close doesn't define my future.  My distance is fuzzy through these lenses.  Which is in stark contrast to what my daughter a first year teacher is experiencing, today.  A bad day of kids not being orderly because they have fallen out of routine and she is rethinking her life purpose.  Sometimes what is happening today makes us fret about tomorrow, when it could just be a bad day.

The hope I have in all of it, sight or not.  Is that God knows the plans He has for me.  He knows my past, present and future.  I can rest in Him, even when it's not clear, even when I don't have it all figured out, even when it's going bad and looks bleak.  I don't have to judge it.  God will bring to light when it needs to be brought to light.

Back to Panera, an older retired gentleman just walked past a table of young professionals.  The advice he gave in passing was "I don't know what you working on but I know whatever it is you are working entirely too hard."  They didn't even hear it or let the wisdom of those words soak in.  He may have seen his years of working and striving hard, not worth it.  But from God's perspective, he wants us to rest in Him, pay attention to what we need to pay attention to.  God is really good!  I didn't even intend to blog today and this is what was given to me today, judge it for yourself.